I bought a Specialised Enduro last year, ridden it a week abroad in the dry and some riding here, only a couple of rides in the wet. It’s been hanging up over winter but I’ve got it down to check it over and found the BB is seized, I can barely move it with my hands and riding it hasn’t free’d them up.

I’ve replaced lots of Hollowtech bottom brackets, (which all survive a winter of riding) but never touched a PF30 BB before, or indeed the X1 crankset which is puzzling me.

I’m guessing I need a sackful of tools to fit get it all apart. I’m going to take it back to the shop tomorrow, but that’s not feasible in the long term, what tools do I need to get ?

Cheers

John

Happened to each side of my Stumpy on separate rides. I basically didn’t dry the bike out enough and the sealing on the standard Sram PF30 is laughable.

I managed to take it apart and get the bearings moving again. Packed them with grease, but they are a bit rumbly now. When it eventually dies, I’ll probably replace it with Hope or something similar.

Not familiar with the X1 crank, but mine was a self-extracting 8mm hex bolt. Then I took the plastic end caps off and carefully removed the bearing shields.

Rinsed them out with IPA and other stuff, got them moving again then packed them with waterproof grease.

Good MBR video of replacement on you tube.

Wondering if mine will need sorting when I get it out tomorrow having read the above (camber evo not ridden in a few weeks).

Anyone remember the longevity of square taper cartridges….

@jsinglet

PF30 is actually really easy to work on, which is good because its a PITA

once the crank is off you can remove the entire cup using a drift (aka socket bar or piece of wooden dowel) if you don’t have the ‘rocket’ tool that many tool brands make.

if you just want to refresh the existing bearings to buy some time, pop the bearing shields with a sharp blade and pack lots of thick grease in there, before pushing shields back into place.

long term get a decent aftermarket PF30 BB with quality bearings and sealing, the SRAM stock BB are absolutely terrible.

I managed a workshop in a busy Specialized Concept Store and constantly dealt with BB30, PF30, OSBB and other ungodly creations 😉

in the photo below you can see a sachet of 3M DP420 epoxy, used to bond the nylon cups into the Specialized carbon frame to stop the cups “walking” out of the shell under load. If the bearings got contaminated and dried up they would start to rotate inside the nylon cups.

They are terrible as I’ve had to change 2 sets of bearings on my spesh enduro in 12 months.

Need to look at different options

Update (late)

The LBS took the bottom bracket out and said there was a load of water in the frame. The aluminium specialized enduro doesn’t have a drain hole in the bottom bracket shell, though does have lots of other holes in the frame to let water in…

So I had a new SRAM one put in, and that’s gone stiff after 1 wet ride.

There’s an internally routed dropper seat post, so taking out the seatpost to let the water out after isn’t trivial. Has anyone drilled a drain hole in their Enduro?

I’m starting to worry now, I’ve a 2014 Stumpy Evo with the dreaded PF30 BB. I’ve ridden it through two winters and although the BB bearings sounded grumbly from brand new, they resolutely refuse to die.

I’m using a set of Wheels Mfg adaptors, I suspect they’re providing some much needed extra shielding to the SRAM bearings.

Prior to buying the Stumpy, I’ve never eked more than six months occasional use out of a SRAM bottom bracket.

300 miles out of my PF30 BB on an Enduro that was new in December 2015.

My bike is going back to the dealer for a service next week and I’ve already mentioned I’ll be expecting Specialized to be offering some kind of warranty. There’s no way it should be failing after 300 miles.

Is the Hope press fit BB any better than the standard SRAM one?

got a set of these for when the BB in my CX bike inevitably dies

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BBTP3030/tripeak-bb30–pf30-bearing-kit

Throw away the sram one, they are very good a creaking/seizing/being a PITA.
Fit a hope one: http://www.hopetech.com/product/press-fit-pf46-bottom-bracket/#tech

We have a few Specialized bikes fitted with PF30s One started creaking and was replaced last summer with a Hope one My latest build was built up with a Hope one. They are expensive so only time will tell if it was worth it. The others will be replaced with Hope as and when they are needed.

IMO/E there’s not enough space in front of the bearings in both PF30/bb30 and Bb92 for decent bearings. You just can’t stop water penetration sufficiently. If water can get in, your bearing will rust, especially if left to stand. Only thing you can do is pack it from new with extra grease,which only lasts so long, or swap it out for stainless bearings, and then it doesn’t matter that theres water in there.

I recently bought a used 2012 carbon stumpy which had adapters for hollow tech 2 cranks fitted, one of which was spinning. Replaced them with a Praxis unit with the expanding collet. I thought they were supposed to be the best solution to stop creaking although don’t know about bearing longevity, anyone have experience of these? Certainly feel rock solid so far

Anyone remember the longevity of square taper cartridges….

Yes, and still running them on 2 MTBs. Biggest problem with square taper bb is they last that long they are seized into the frame when they do eventually wear out.
Guess that’s progress for you 😀

@davosauusrex

cannot say the lifespan of my Praxis PF30 BB in my Stumpy was anything spectacular, after 3 months the bearings were rough. Bearing in mind I never jet wash my bike and rode it twice a week on a mild XC loop

Quite easy to swap out the bearings if you have the right tools though..

The other issue with the Praxis unit was the tolerance on my Stumpy’s PF30 BB shell were a little off, Praxis suggested using a smear of grease on the cups whilst installing, but I found it creaked under power even with their collet design

I then refitted the cups with fibre grip (carbon fibre paste) and never suffered any further creaking.

The LBS took the bottom bracket out and said there was a load of water in the frame. The aluminium specialized enduro doesn’t have a drain hole in the bottom bracket shell

FTFY 😀

The same thing happens on my Stumpy (2016). drainage is terrible. When mine gets a soaking, I tilt it onto the back wheel and let water out through the chainstays.

Just bought a Wheels MFG PF30 to replace the Sram one. Mine went “stiff” twice. Managed to free it up and pack the bearings with decent grease, but now crank had a bit of play and it was creaking and cracking awfully.

Fitting the new one tomorrow as I’ve bashed the old one out!

esher shore- thanks for that. My Praxis pushed in by hand which surprised me but did up nice and tight. Silent so far but only two rides on it. I have some fibre paste so will try that if it starts creaking. Will keep an eye on the bearings too

I was going to fit a better BB, but lbs pointed out no matter how good it is it won’t survive sitting in a pool of water…

As mentioned the real problem is that the frame fills easily with water but then holds it in the bb area, it is the bane of my life, carbon Spesh Enduro here.

I didn’t like the Command Post which was a stealth version so gave that away and now run a non stealth Reverb which is more reliable and easier to work on and it means I can pop it out and drain the frame.

The fact remains that I am still riding with water sloshing about down there so the whole bb assembly needs tlc.

I am on a black works one at the mo which is meant to be better than the red one which lasted 7 months which is about 2000 miles.

Love the bike but do find the whole BB30 thing a pain.

Reading quickly trough this thread, it appears the problem is as much to do with lack of water drainage in the frame. The PF30 BB in my CX bike has done 8000 miles in some pretty crap conditions without the slightest problem.

Is there a structural issue with drilling a drain hole in a carbon BB shell? Mine is a 2012 so the “lifetime” warranty probably isn’t worth much now anyway

@davo

Drilling a 1.5mm-2mm hole isn’t going to cause any structural issues, although technically it will invalidate the warranty.

From my experiences with 100’s of customers and my own press fit BB on a dozen frames misalignment/poor tolerance as well as water ingress is probably the cause of premature bearing death

Took my Enduro 29er out the garage today, bought it new 22nd January this year and BB was just about siezed up, rode it 4 times and never jet washed it. Got a Boardman Pro 29er with same PF30 BB, done 2500 miles on that in all conditions with no issues. Will be taking it back to Specialized.

@mikeyay

Good move. A frame with poor tolerance is not going to get any better during its lifetime. It’s just going to need constant maintenance, replacement parts and probably aftermarket parts to lengthen the service intervals, to the point where ownership is not a pita

I have access to a full service workshop, all the tools and cheap spares, and I found it a drag…. Life is too short 😉

Took my Enduro 29er out the garage today, bought it new 22nd January this year and BB was just about siezed up, rode it 4 times and never jet washed it. Got a Boardman Pro 29er with same PF30 BB, done 2500 miles on that in all conditions with no issues. Will be taking it back to Specialized.

the glaring flaw with the enduro frame is the massive hole in the top tube just above the shock. It must allow a massive amount of water into the frame even in normal wet weather riding, and even washing the bike with a low pressure hose, you’ll still get loads in the BB shell. With no drain hole it’s just going to sit there rusting the BB rapidly.

Has anyone had any joy with Specialized offering a warranty replacement. A BB is certainly a wear and tear part, but the 300 miles I got out mine is a joke.

I’ve been out on my fresh Wheels MFG PF30 (Stumpjumper 2016) and it’s creak free so far. Time will tell how much better it is than the standard unit.

@BoardinBob my LBS wouldn’t entertain the idea of it being a warranty replacement.

Bit of an update for you on my replacement. The Wheels MFG one is creaking and cracking like mad (alu frame). Really can’t be bothered getting it out to refit it.

I used cycle specific grease to fit it as per instructions, but it seems to have made no difference.

There is no play in it and it feels solid. Not buying another frame with a press-fit again. Still thinking of a frame swap, as I was going to keep this one and upgrade the shock instead…

My Enduro is at Specialized today….will see what they say.

@johnw1984

Try refitting your Wheels BB with fibre grip (carbon paste) – it will prevent any movement under power unless the tolerance is really far off on the frame’s BB shell.

Apply fibre grip to where each BB cup contacts the frame’s BB shell, but use anti-seize or grease on the threaded component

should solve your creaking!

Specialized store Birmingham have replaced bottom bracket with an uprated Wheels Manufacturing one and drilled a small hole at the bottom of the bb shell, all under warranty….can’t fault the service! Hoping it will now last a bit longer than 4 rides.

jsinglet – Member

Has anyone drilled a drain hole in their Enduro?

No but I’ve drilled a hole in every bike where the manufacturer forgot to include one. It doesn’t stop SRAM BBs from being shite though. Even the best SRAM BBs are so considering that practically nobody makes a good pressfit BB I’m assuming that SRAM pressfits are super mega shite

I just got my first frame with a pressfit, and I was just looking at the BB last night going “where are the bearings? Wait, this tiny thing is the bearing?”

Cheers for the advice Esher, but it isn’t a “thread together” type, just the traditional press in replacement.

It’s actually quietened down a lot now, so hopefully it’s ok 🙂

I’ll try the grip paste if the creaking persists.